A rambling, illustrated guide to enjoying the lightweight tricycle. My blog follows my personal journey towards greater fitness from a very low ebb. It describes the discovery of suitable equipment, clothing and techniques for riding a lightweight trike [more] quickly on the "wrong side of the road" in a "difficult" climate on a modest budget by an opinionated "pedalling pedant." A sense of humour is considered vital to the full enjoyment of this monologue. Some ranting may be involved.

23 Aug 2015

23rd August 2015 The big harvester fire!

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I could see fire and huge clouds of smoke ahead as I descended a narrow country lane. Fortunately it was not one of the few houses I had feared might be ablaze. Though one house was surrounded closely by burning crops. There were no fire appliances at all when I arrived but the occupants of several cars were watching intently.

The harvester tyres could be heard deflating above the roar of the fire.

A brisk easterly wind was carrying the fire out into the crops over the whole area of the field.

Once the fire brigade arrived they parked further along and began fighting the fire in the crops.

There was not much left to save of the harvester itself by then as it was well alight.

Eventually five more fire appliances arrived from both directions including a tanker.

The lane is a bit of a rat run and more and more cars kept arriving and parking on the verge.

Many occupants had mobile phones with cameras and were recording the fire.

One driver tried to do a 3 point turn [badly] in the narrow lane with fire engines bearing down on him with their sirens blaring.

I took some short videos but with people milling about and vehicles trying to park it was hard to avoid disturbance. The recorded wind noise was irritating too.

I don't usually worry about image copyright but somebody might try and pass off my pictures as their own.

Just as I left, a huge tractor arrived with a large plough. Probably intending to plough the crop in rather than let it burn and spread even further.

The heat was intense as I passed the harvester and rode on into the incredibly thick smoke.